Nostr Web Client

david 2y ago

Legacy social media uses advertising to finance the design, implementation and maintenance costs of:

1. platform UX

2. content storage / archive

3. content delivery to end user

4. content curation algos

With nostr:

FOSS is handling (1).

Nostr uses relays for (2) and (3), although unclear how relay monetization will play out.

Also unclear how (4) will work with nostr. The ability to make lists is a start. But long run:

- Who designs the algos? Does someone need to be paid for this or can they be implemented at no cost via a combo of FOSS + user input that is provided for free (e.g. using lists)?

- Who implements / executes the curation algos, the computations & data processing? Will these costs be trivial compared to (2) and (3) or will these costs be significant?

My thoughts: once we get into web of trust, which will probably require high quality data + computationally expensive graph analysis, the costs associated with high-quality content curation will be nontrivial. In the long run users should have a mechanism to be compensated for their contributions to content curation. Legacy media expects users to provide things like ratings for free, but the legacy monetization model needs to die. Have mechanisms to pay your trusted users a few sats for their ratings, not just for their “content”. Let your WoT help you decide which users to pay for ratings in any given context. This is how we replace the legacy advertising-based monetization model.

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Discussion

ww 2y ago

I asume there will be paid relays for every taste and usage case. The people who run the relays will create their own algos to curate the content for their relay and their paying users.

want moderated boards? - there is a relay

want good curated mainstream newsfeeds? - there is a relay

want porn? - there is a relay

want bridges to other services? - there is a relay

want dating? - there is a relay

I guess this might work out, but it will centralize stuff quickly, when one or a few of them become succesful.

david 2y ago

I think you’re right to be concerned about centralization if relay specialization is the direction we go.

Ideally, the barrier to entry for new relays to pop up would be as close to zero as possible. That way, it will always be easy to bypass relays that somehow manage to get captured by centralizing forces. If running a successful relay requires building up brand recognition, then the barrier will be large, and disintermediation of captured relays will be more difficult.